A McAfee fourth-quarter 2010 threat report has revealed that viral attacks on smart-phone devices are on the increase as more and more people get access to mobile Internet. According to the report, malware attacks designed to collect data from iPhones and new tablet computers rose by 46% in 2010 when compared to similar 2009 results. The figure is expected to rise again this year as smart-phones and tablet devices such as the iPad, increase in popularity and fraudsters try to replicate scams developed for laptop and desktop PCs. Already, IDC figures show that smart-phones are outnumbering PCs in terms of sales with manufacturers shipping around 100.9 million smart-phones globally in the fourth quarter of 2010 compared to 92 million PCs.
These figures perhaps explain the sudden attraction of smart-phones and tablet PCs to scammers and hi-tech fraudsters.So far, the overall number of threats to mobile devices is reported to be about 1,000 a year compared to there about 55,000 daily malware threats to traditional computers globally. Presently, the most common attacks involve the use of malware to secretly collects smart-phone users’ information as part of a ‘botnet’ network. Others are said to include the use of so-called Zeus tools, that can be designed to infect online banking sites, against mobile Internet devices. Furthermore, Majority of the malware targeting smart-phones are said spread via PDFs and Flash software although the number of infections targeting mobile devices is still relatively small.
Talking Point
Has your smart-phone gadget ever been targeted by a virus?
11 Comments
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Maudie Moulthrop
February 12, 2011 at 3:40 am
I hope smartphone companies will do something about this. I’m afraid my smartphone will be infected or someone who make anti-virus for phones should share his thoughts. Phone is one of man’s necessities in life.
bilal
February 12, 2011 at 9:09 am
thanks for alarming me about my cellphone .bcoz i saved a alot of things in my cellphone .and i dont wants to change it
JJ
February 14, 2011 at 2:51 am
I really think that this could be a great field for some of the big anti virus e.g. Norton and McAffee to get into, they could make a killing by helping people stay safe from crooks just like they already do
dan
February 24, 2011 at 10:15 pm
This is a shame but was inevitable. Being that smart phones are so integrated with our computers and online accounts, there is a wealth of information available for hackers to steal. I assume that most people will never know if their phone was hacked since many computer viruses run in the background. Either way, everyone should be aware and have some kind of protection. This means big business for software companies that specialize in virus and malware removal.
Admin
February 27, 2011 at 10:46 pm
At the end of the day, users will just have to apply similar security standards as they do on their PCs.
Reandy
March 8, 2011 at 1:34 pm
Thanks for your review, I just hear about Google’s Android malware and now I found your article. I think we need to be more careful about smartphone viruses
VaneFruits
March 21, 2011 at 10:16 pm
I read that some free apps and some other paid apps collect and share information about contacts and some other information on a smart phone to create profiles of the owners, some even share the serial number of the smart phone. The number of infections can be relatively small but surely getting this number bigger is what hackers are thinking about right now. I have never used my iphone to access a bank account and i wont be doing it in the future.
Dragos
March 23, 2011 at 2:36 pm
I guess that it was just a matter of time until some strong viruses will appear in smartphone world.
Smart phone developers will have a grate market for developing protections softwares and they will earn a lot of money.
Cheryl 'Cleaner' Jones
June 8, 2011 at 10:18 pm
No, my smart phone hasn’t been attacked yet (at least I hope not)! Is there anything that I can do to prevent something like this happening to me? I have a lot of sensitive data on my phone (i.e. bank apps, family contacts and information, etc.) that I for sure don’t want falling into the hands of these people.
Any advice would be great, thanks!
Sandra
August 28, 2011 at 1:54 pm
I’m glad it hasn’t become as normal as for pc’s yet.
I hope the phones will get better protection from viruses and malware.
My phone is much more personal than my “Personal” computer so if my phone gets a virus it would be even worse.
John Allen
December 21, 2011 at 9:44 am
Well that’s part of the advancements in cellphones. The more advancements we get in that area the more opportunities of harm as well. Like before, we only used to have troubles with viruses on bluetooth transfers and such, but now we have wifi on our phones so the more vulnerable we are as well.